The South Carolina Gamecocks were simply not up to the test against the #2 Ohio State Buckeyes. OSU’s Jared Sullinger, with 30 points and 19 rebounds, was too much for the inside game of South Carolina. Behind his efforts and poor shooting by SC, Carolina was defeated by the score of 79-57 in Columbus, OH.

Sam Muldrow scored 14 points and Malik Cooke 13 for South Carolina (7-2), whose only losses this season have come against second-ranked Big Ten teams. The Gamecocks lost 82-73 at then-No. 2 Michigan State on Nov. 16.

What lead to the defeat: Poor shooting for USC as they shot 38 percent from the field as Carolina could not work the ball inside for higher percentage shots. They had to depend on outside shooting rather than inside the paint. Take that with a cold hand and you can see the result. Also Carolina shot 3-7 in free throws, whereas the Buckeyes were 21-28. See the difference? Also the Gamecocks were outrebounded by OSU and gave the Buckeyes too many second chance points. Take all this and 15 turnovers and you have yourself a defeat.

Positives for South Carolina: Sam Muldrow is beginning to realize that he has to step up his game on the offense side of the ball. In the first half he was quiet but came on strong in the second half. Here is his stat line – 14 Pts, 8 Reb, 2 Stl, 2 Blk. Nice work but needs help in producing and for this team known for multiple scorers carry the load, it was not there on Saturday.

Quote from the Coach that sums it up: Coach Horn on the game….“I think we took this game knowing it would be a great challenge and we found out a lot about our team,” Horn said on his post-game radio show. “I think we did. Today was an old fashioned whipping from a veteran team that did the little things. We were a team that did not do the little things we needed to do to be in a game like this. But it will be a tremendous learning experience and we’ll get better from it moving forward.”

Notes about this Game:

USC set season lows for total points, assists, steals, field goals made, and free throws made.

South Carolina has recorded fewer free throws made than their opponents for the past 6 games.

The top two scorers (Sam Muldrow and Malik Cooke) accounted for 47.3% of the points.

The top two rebounders (Sam Muldrow and Lakeem Jackson) accounted for 45.7% of the rebounds.

Sam Muldrow has 3 straight double-digit point games.

Next up: South Carolina will head north again as they will travel to face Furman in Greenville on December 22 at 7 p.m.